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Linguistics is another good option, I'll admit. And Performance does have that whole "exhorting mob violence" angle to it. However, from your description, it sounds like you want someone who can move through social events like a fish through water, leaking broken relationships in their wake, which feels most like Socialize to me.

Solar Presence is more "I'm exceptionally awesome, so you should do what I tell you," so it doesn't quite feel appropriate for this character's main focus, but it has some very useful charms in it.

....

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I noticed your Memory-Reweaving Discipline question over on the Ask the Devs thread, which is fortuitous, since it can totally affect my decision to acquire it for Shining Crimson Oath (I'm working on Solar names, now, too).

I went looking for a couple solar charms I remembered that let you just ...make people do things and realized that that one didn't quite interact the social system, so I asked about it. That said, even if it doesn't create an effective intimacy, the Instill action requires evidence to justify a roll.

I mean, you can say "Your boss, who you've served faithfully for 30 years, is actually a sociopathic serial killer and he murdered your dog," but most people are gonna want something more than "Oh, he's totally guilty, I swear." With MRD you can just tell everyone that statement and, assuming you make the roll, they'll believe it and you can then use it for evidence in further messing with their intimacies (assuming you need to, because said people might have formed a mob on their own already).

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Linguistics is another good option, I'll admit. And Performance does have that whole "exhorting mob violence" angle to it. However, from your description, it sounds like you want someone who can move through social events like a fish through water, leaking broken relationships in their wake, which feels most like Socialize to me.

Solar Presence is more "I'm exceptionally awesome, so you should do what I tell you," so it doesn't quite feel appropriate for this character's main focus, but it has some very useful charms in it.

Oh, yeah, Socialize has always been my supernal choice for this character. Venomous Rumors Technique is the foundation of the plan with the caveat I had not read it yet when the idea of "social assassin" hit me as the character concept. That said, Linguistics, Performance, and Presence all have charms that fit the character, most of which only require getting the Essence level necessary to open them up, as many of the prerequisites are within reach at chargen. One thing of which I'm not sure, though, is how to make Shining Crimson Oath useful come physical combat...

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There are a great many ways to ruin a reputation, how would you like to go about it?

Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise (Larceny) lets you become Peleps Deled and do something terrible.

Letter-Within-A-Letter Technique plus Essence-Laden Missive can make somebody inexplicably shout "Minemon is a pretender to the throne!" after looking at a drink menu. Add Voice-Caging Caligraphy and the words "I didn't mean to impugn Minemon's good name" for extra fun. Then there's, of course, forging unflattering letters and distributing pro-Anathema tracts in Peleps Deled's name. You don't need to beat your Exalted victim's Integrity, just the audience's.

Regardless, you probably want some Socialize - Motive Discerning Technique, Shadow Over Day and Intent-Tracing Stare are good for figuring other people out while not being figured out yourself.

Pick up Black Claw Style to triple down on being a manipulative prick, and give yourself some much-needed combat utility.

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Real life has been causing me some issues recently, but I've wanted to give a rough idea of what I see the character doing.

The victim sees his or her world come crashing down in the course of a party, meeting, or other social event, as a result of Shining Crimson Oath's "timely"actions. What actually has been going on, however, is painstaking work for weeks, if not months, carefully degrading Intimacies, implanting doubts, and quietly turning everyone ever so slightly against the victim. So, if it was in a movie, the audience would see the victim get socially destroyed and then flashbacks of all the social engineering that brought the scene to that particular end.

I hope that very succinct description makes sense. Thank you again to everyone who continues to make suggestions and otherwise help me with these ideas.

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Writing out a session as a series of flashbacks is an awful lot of fun. I strongly suggest talking it over with your players ahead of time, to get buy in on the semi-railroading that needs to happen.

As for your character, he might want to plan ahead for a potential brawl to break out at the party as a consequence of his actions. That would suggest enough Brawl or Martial Arts to make your getaway. Planning to grapple might not be a bad idea, because klobbering your victim to death is a bad way to ruin them for life.

Some Larceny would be good for acquiring or planting damaging evidence. Ditto Athletics and Stealth.

All those together would probably be good for tackling scenarios other than what you're built-to-do, too.

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Ultimately, you want Venomous Rumors, but making a beeline there right now is horrendously expensive in the sheer number of charms required, so let's lay the foundations. For this to work out, you need to..

1: Figure out who the mark's friends really are.
2: Understand what makes them tick.
3: Persuade them to turn on the mark
4: Avoid being exposed as a manipulative bastard.

For #3, just having knowledge of your target's intimacies and a 10-die Manipiulation+Socialize pool goes a long way, but I'd also pick up Harmonious Presence Meditation from the Presence tree. because why wouldn't you want that?

For #4, I'd revisit Socialize for Shadow Over Day, at least, because 1m for +1 Guile is pretty great.

Leaving you 7 charms for other things. I'd consider grabbing a little Dodge and a Martial Art like Dreaming Pearl Courtesan or Black Claw, but Snake or even Tiger work fine too I suppose. The point is mostly to have a potent unarmed option in case fights break out while you're trying to look harmless.

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I looked through the various martial arts and noted four which work for Shining Crimson Oath: Snake, Crane, Black Claw, and Dreaming Pearl Courtesan. They all have a general push for defense to start and a heaping helping of "Surprise, bitches!" when the inevitable fight breaks out, sometimes possibly in front of witnesses. Those witnesses are best mollified with either of Black Claw or Dreaming Pearl Courtesan, but it could be just as easy to say something to the effect of "One has to be able to defend oneself, right?" as an excuse for knowing either of Snake or Crane style. That said, I do have to profess a certain love for the Black Claw and Dreaming Pearl Courtesan styles with respect to how I envision Shining Crimson Oath.

Speaking of, it's (back)story time: Shining Crimson Oath was a slave. She grew up a child of slaves, learning the arts of servitude, style, and socialization, though the latter pair were as a result of observation rather than experience. She threw off her shackles and ditched the house she served, liberating herself one night through a bit of guile and luck. Not long thereafter, she was lucky enough to run into a Presence supernal Exalt who took Shining Crimson Oath under her wing, teaching [insert martial arts style here] to her while bringing a finer point to the social skills Shining Crimson Oath possesses. The Wyld Hunt rolled into town on unrelated business and her mentor couldn't resist messing with the group. It ended... poorly... Shining Crimson Oath went on the run as her mentor was captured after an unfortunate exchange that revealed her identity. Shining Crimson Oath has since honed her skills for social situations and vowed not to be so overconfident in her abilities.

Finally, thank you Amayad for the relative progression I'm looking for in Socialize and Presence. I have a couple of Performance and Larceny charms I'd like to pick up for Shining Crimson Oath, and I'm considering how Integrity might work out with her, too.

"At the risk of sounding like a murder hobo"

Attributed to Nyrufa.

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Hm! it's not often that Solars end up mentoring under other Solars these days, but it's not impossible. So I assume "I will rescue my mentor from The Nail" is a Defining intimacy? I mean, he always said you were gonna go far.